Archbishop Burke: “Faithful Citizenship” Partly to Blame for Obama

The great Archbishop Raymond Burke, now Apostolic Signatura in Rome, blames the USCCB’s “Faithful Citizenship” document for deluding Catholics into thinking that they could in good conscience vote for Barack Obama.US Catholic Bishops’ Conference, that many pro-life observers complained soft-pedalled the newly elected president’s opposition to traditional morality.

He’s dead right–I personally know people who profess the Catholic faith, and who came right out and said to me it was OK to vote for the most pro-abortion President in history, because of “Faithful Citizenship.”

“Archbishop Raymond Burke, the prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, named a document on the election produced by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops that he said ‘led to confusion’ among the faithful and led ultimately to massive support among Catholics for Barack Obama.

The US bishops’ document, ‘Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,’ stated that, under certain circumstances, a Catholic could in good conscience vote for a candidate who supports abortion because of ‘other grave reasons,’ as long as they do not intend to support that pro-abortion position…

Archbishop Burke, citing an article by a priest and ethics expert of St. Louis archdiocese, Msgr. Kevin McMahon, who analysed how the bishops’ document actually contributed to the election of Obama, called its proposal ‘a kind of false thinking, that says, ‘there’s the evil of taking an innocent and defenceless human life but there are other evils and they’re worthy of equal consideration.’

‘But they’re not. The economic situation, or opposition to the war in Iraq, or whatever it may be, those things don’t rise to the same level as something that is always and everywhere evil, namely the killing of innocent and defenceless human life.'” (emphasis added).

His Excellency also took on Catholic News Agency:

“Archbishop Burke also cited the work of the official news service of the

‘The bishops need to look also at our Catholic News Service, CNS, they need to review their coverage of the whole thing and give some new direction, in my judgement,’” he said.